People infected with HIV might well want to know who gave it to them – but the genetic sequence of their virus won’t tell them.
The virus is now routinely sequenced in each infected person to uncover drug-resistance genes, but virus sequences have also been used in several high-profile court cases by lawyers seeking to show who infected whom. This has led some HIV carriers to wonder if they might be able to do the same.
“HIV sequences have been used by lawyers seeking to show who infected whom”
“The data won’t work for that,” warns Deenan Pillay of University College London – because HIV evolves too…
